The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

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Monday, July 17, 2017

Temple Mt. opens in stages amid terror probe - debkaFile

by debkaFile

The Israeli government decided that the shrine, which is sacred to
three monotheistic faiths, needs better security installed before it is
judged safe for worship and visits.

Pressure on Israel from the Arab world to reopen Temple Mount and its
mosques for Muslim prayer without delay has been strongly countered by
the Israeli police and security authorities. They need more time to
complete their investigation of the scene of the terror attack, Friday,
July 14, in which two Israeli officers on guard were shot dead and a
third injured. The three Israeli Arabs who committed the murders were
shot dead in the subsequent firefight outside the Dome of the Rock.
The Israeli government also decided that the shrine, which is sacred to
three monotheistic faiths, needs better security installed before it is
judged safe for worship and visits.
On Saturday, Washington came to the aid of the investigation. Strongly
condemning the “heartbreaking act of terror on Temple Mount,” the White
House press secretary added: "The attack forced the government of Israel
to temporarily close the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif to conduct its
investigation," said the statement. "Israel has assured the world that
it has no intention to alter the status of this holy site, a decision
which the United States applauds and welcomes."
Saturday night, the Netanyahu government Saturday nevertheless ordered
Temple Mount opened Sunday “in stages” - which gives the police and
security authorities a little breathing space.

The police have been combing through the “scene of terror,” to
reconstruct the crime and discover the secret arms caches hidden there.
This undertaking is vast, complex and exceptionally sensitive.
The Temple Mount surface platform is 150,000 sq. meters in area with
nine ancient open gates. It stands atop 13 historic periods of
construction and destruction, each of which has left layer upon layer of
mostly unexplored tunnels, pipes, caves, pits, shafts and debris. Even
archeologists working there for decades and the clerical staff of the
Waqf authority in charge of Muslim rites there can’t claim to have
explored all the warrens hidden under the paved surface.

It is also suspected that there may be secret underground channels
running under the Temple Mount wall and leading outside the compound.

The police are meanwhile keeping their cards very close to their
vests. They have detained some Waqf officials on suspicion of a
connection with the terrorists, without releasing figures, and
discovered a quantity of firearms. But the cops, unfamiliar with this
unique ancient site, don’t know what they will find. They are after
information about the identities of the party which instructed them to
hide the two rifles and pistols used by the terrorists and said when
they should be handed over. In short, whether a terrorist network exists
on Temple Mount.

Relatives of the three terrorists, who belonged to the same clan in
the Israeli Arab town of Umm al-Fahm, have been detained in search of
information about how they came to perform the first act of terror by
Moslems on Temple Mount. Most of the town and other parts of the Arab
population are hostile to the investigation.

Israeli Arab community leaders, including their 13 parliamentarians,
have refused to condemn the attack, willing only to voice regret for all
the deaths inflicted Friday, including the three assailants.
This was resented not only by Israelis at large, but most bitterly by
the Druze community, which buried two of its sons, Hail Stawi, 30, from
Maghar and Kamil Shanan, 22, from Hurfeish both in northern Israel. They
were shot to death while guarding the holy site.
The Temple terror investigation has exposed troubling animosities in Israeli Arab society.

debkaFileSource: http://debka.com/article/26147/Temple-Mt-opens-in-stages-amid-terror-probe Follow Middle East and Terrorism on TwitterCopyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.